MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The engine number of the missile shown by Dutch investigators probing the 2014 crash of Flight MH17 indicates that the Buk system involved belonged to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Ukraine, which got some 20 regimental sets of the Buk air defense system, has not received a single new anti-aircraft missile since the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991 and following the subsequent division of military property," the ministry said.
"The only reason the Dutch investigative commission deliberately refuses to name the source of origin of the missile engine that was shown, which was made in 1986, is that it's more than likely that it belonged to the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the ministry said.
"However, those presenting the report preferred not to disclose when and where this missile was found or name the persons who had handed it over to the investigation commission," it said.
The Russian Armed Forces were not involved in the crash, the ministry said.
The ministry said on Thursday that Russian air defense missile systems had never crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine.
"Not a single air defense missile system of the Russian Armed Forces has ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border," the ministry said then.
The international group of investigators said on Thursday that the missile that struck the Boeing passenger airplane over the Donetsk region in July 2014 belonged to a military unit based in the Russian city of Kursk.